Uniion Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has impressed upon Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that officials executing various centrally sponsored schemes,like the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY),must be directed to adhere to guidelines,particularly provisions relating to consultations with MPs. The ministry has also asked the state government to place citizen information boards in the local language in prominent locations at places that have benefited from the PMGSY scheme.

Disclosing this in a press note issued here on Wednesday,Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said Ramesh has written to the chief minister making it clear that local MPs and MLAs should be consulted on road work lest they be manipulated by those having sway over the powers in the state.

Tewari also said that in the second phase of PMGSY,Ludhiana will get five roads at a cost of over Rs 17 crore. He added that the union rural development ministry has sanctioned 46 more roads covering 455 kms which will be constructed for around Rs 247 crore of which Rs 225 crore will be provided by the Centre and the state will pitch in with the remaining Rs 22 crore. He further said that this is in addition to the 121 roads covering 637 kms at a cost of Rs 319 crore that the Centre had sanctioned for the state this February.